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Preseason coaches polls

This past Tuesday was Hockey East media day at TD Garden in Boston, MA. Part of the annual event was the release of the preseason coaches poll and Maine was selected 8th in the poll. The preseason coaches poll is the coaches making predictions of where teams are going to finish in the Hockey East standings. Boston College and Umass-Lowell were picked as winners as both had an equal number of points in the poll.

The preseason coaches poll. Courtesy of Boston Globe

My one critique of the preseason poll system is that it’s usually not accurate of the actual outcome. Last year they only got 3 out of 10 correct, Maine wasn’t one of them. Maine was picked to go 5th but finished a dismal 8th.

So to point up the Whose Line cliche, the points really don’t matter. Preseason polls are a meaningless way for members of the media to drool over numbers for a few weeks before the season even starts. In the end it’s a great way to motivate Maine, it gives them something to prove to not only themselves, but to all the coaches that voted them low into the polls. Maine is a young team with a lot of potential, four of the top five point scorers were freshmen. Martin Ouellette returns in net after having relatively decent season between the pipes.

Overall though I do agree with Maine’s placing in the preseason poll, though I had predicted they’d be 7th. But Maine will have a lot to prove, the season is just under two weeks away, I’ll have more coverage on opening night against St. Lawrence next week. On Wednesday’s post I’ll have some content on Media Day. Maine’s media day is today, I will be there on behalf of WMEB Sports along with my colleagues. I will have pictures and some audio/video on Monday that will be posted on Wednesday for this blog.